A never-ending quagmire of felted owls, twee pirates, and racy onesies Indie craft fairs started cropping up in major cities roughly a decade ago, shortly after the Battle in Seattle and long before The New York Times began regularly using the word "hipster." Tired out from kicking in Starbucks windows, anti-corporate urban bohemians hunkered down with crochet hooks and some Oolong.

As the recession claims more and more big chain stores, independent booksellers become hot commodities Boston is pocked by vacant storefronts. Businesses don't sell in this economy; they just disappear. But there is one exception: of all things, bookstores are selling like proverbial hotcakes.

As books turn into data and tweets are archived for posterity, how will readers and academics cope with the detritus of a digital age? A hundred years from now, how will literary historians deal with 21st-century authors like Tao Lin?

Interested in a career in books? Here's whatcha do. Some people visit bookstores so their children can chew objects outside the home. Others, to peruse the latest magazines for free. Still others walk into a bookstore and are filled with a vague but palpable longing.

Worst of Both Worlds On Tuesday, musician Ben Folds (formerly of the Five) and rock-obsessed novelist Nick Hornby ( High Fidelity ) released a collaborative record called Lonely Avenue . The result of this musical-literary team-up isn't excruciating.